A's rally to overcome Red Sox

Rookie Travis Buck hit a tying two-run homer off Papelbon in the
ninth inning and Dan Johnson doubled home the winning run in
the 10th as the Athletics rallied for a 5-4 victory over the
Boston Red Sox on Tuesday in the first of a two-game series.

Oakland extended its winning streak to five games after Papelbon
coughed up his first lead in nine chances. Boston had the
second-best ERA (2.18) in the majors and had been the only team
in baseball without a blown save.

"We all got used to him being almost perfect," Red Sox manager
Terry Francona said of Papelbon. "When he's not ... it's you're
going to give up runs sometimes and when you do it in the ninth
in the closer's role it obviously affects the whole game, but
he's about as perfect as you can get - just wasn't tonight."

The light-hitting A's, who entered with a major league-worst
.230 batting average, were shut down by Boston starter Curt
Schilling, who went seven strong innings and left with a 4-2
lead in his bid for a fourth straight victory.

Armed with a 4-2 lead, Papelbon yielded a leadoff single to
Bobby Crosby and a long homer to right by Buck, who started the
night batting .190 with 21 strikeouts in 63 at-bats.

"Fortunately enough he missed his spot and luckily enough I did
not have to see that splitter," Buck said. "When I hit it I
kind of saw (right fielder Eric) Hinske scaling that wall, and I
was like no way that is all I got and fortunately I had enough
to get it out of here."

The hard-throwing righthander put two more runners on base
before getting out of the inning, throwing a season-high 35
pitches.

In the 10th, Mike Piazza led off with a double to left off
Brendan Donnelly (0-1) and Johnson followed with another double
down the right field line to plate Piazza for a 5-4 lead.

"I had a pretty decent pitch to hit," Johnson said. "I think it
was a 2-0 pitch and that is a ball that I would normally be
looking for but his (Donnelly) ball is moving all over the place
and I was really trying to get the head out there and it was
fortunate enough to stay fair."

Huston Street pitched a 1-2-3 10th for his 10th save to preserve
the victory for Justin Duchscherer (2-1), who pitched a
scoreless ninth.

"What a great win for our team to go against Curt Schilling and
beat Papelbon late in the game is a real big boost for us," A's
manager Bob Geren said. "We obviously have been struggling a
lot in April with our hitting and to get runs off pitchers of
that caliber is a big boost for us."

Schilling allowed two runs - both earned - and eight hits while
striking out a season-high seven and walking none.

Lefthander Hideki Okajima retired the side in order in the
eighth for his 12th consecutive scoreless appearance before
Papelbon's meltdown in the ninth.

"We had the best record in the big leagues in April and I don't
think we have any complete games," Schilling said. "Our bullpen
has been phenomenal, no matter how well you line it up, this is
the big leagues and it doesn't always work out the way you want
it to."

Following his rocky season-opening 7-1 drubbing to Kansas City
in which he lasted only four innings, Schilling has pitched at
least seven innings for the fifth consecutive start.

The Red Sox gave their ace three runs to work with in their
first at-bat with some uncharacteristic small ball against A's
starter Joe Blanton, who entered 2-0 lifetime against Boston.

Coco Crisp, elevated to second in the batting order, reached on
an infield single, stole second and moved to third on David
Ortiz's bloop single into left field.

After Manny Ramirez delivered Crisp with a sacrifice fly, Kevin
Youkilis singled and stole second to put runners at the corners.
Youkilis was batting fifth because right fielder J.D. Drew was
sidelined due to a viral illness.

Mike Lowell then plated both runners on an infield single behind
second base. Youkilis never stopped running on the play and
scored as A's shortstop Crosby inexplicably threw to third base
for a 3-0 advantage.

Boston added a run in the third, sparked by a leadoff walk to
Crisp. Crisp moved to third on Ramirez's single to center and
scored on a sacrifice fly to left by Youkilis to make it 4-0.

Blanton settled down from there, allowing just one hit over his
final four innings. He allowed four runs and six hits in seven
innings, striking out four and walking two.

"After giving up three in the first you are just trying to go
out and stay as long at you can in the game and hope luck or
whatever it may be might turn around for you and keep it right
there and give us a chance," Blanton said. "A lot of times if
you keep the game right there, your team will come back and
score some runs."

Ramirez added a single in the eighth, giving him 1,000 hits in
his seventh season with Boston. He has 2,086 for his career and
became the 14th player in history to have at least 1,000 hits
with two different teams (Cleveland).

Oakland got a run back in the top of the fourth on a long homer
to right by Johnson, his first of the season. They added a run
in the seven on pinch hitter Todd Walker's sacrifice fly, on
which Crisp made a brilliant diving catch.

"It was a big team win tonight and hopefully we can get some
momentum," Piazza said.

ALAT BOSTON - SCORING UPDATETWO-RUN HOME RUN BY TRAVIS BUCK (3) TO RIGHT WITH 0 OUT IN THE 9TH OFF JONATHAN PAPELBON SCORED BOBBY CROSBY.CURRENT SCORE: OAKLAND 4, BOSTON 4DUE UP FOR OAKLAND: J KENDALL (.185, 2-FOR-3)